Sun Jun 13 2021

During months of pandemic isolation, Wesley Morris, a critic at large for The New York Times, decided to grow a mustache. The reviews were mixed and predictable. He heard it described as “porny” and “creepy,” as well as “rugged” and “extra gay.” It was a comment on a group call, however, that gave him pause. Someone noted that his mustache made him look like a lawyer for the N.A.A.C.P.’s legal defense fund. “It was said as a winking correction and an earnest clarification — Y’all, this is what it is,” Wesley said. “The call moved on, but I didn’t. That is what it is: one of the sweetest, truest things anybody had said about me in a long time.” On today’s episode of The Sunday Read, Wesley Morris’s story about Blackness and the symbolic power of the mustache.